The Josh Innes Show - Who Killed The Washington Post?

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

I see so many people on social media lamenting the death of the Washington Post. Well, let's get honest about what really caused this casualty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Martha listens to her favorite band all the time. In gym. Even sleeping. So when they finally went on tour, Martha bundled her flight and hotel on Expedia to see them live. She saved so much she got her seat close enough to actually see and hear them. Sort of. You were made to scream from the front row. We were made to quietly save you more.

Expedia, made to travel. Savings vary and subject to availability. All right, everybody. all up in us hello I'm interested in this story about the people at Washington Post, all the people getting whacked at Washington Post and the sports department going away

and it's not so much that it's going away because newspapers are dying. We know they're dying just like radio stations die and other old guard media outlets die and cable dies and there's a lot of death. There's a lot of media death. But what I find interesting is the reaction from people, the disingenuous, phony, self-absorbed, lack of, what's the word I'm looking for?

What is the word I'm looking for? Not self-reflection, but just kind of a lack of awareness. There's a lack of awareness from a lot of people who are on social media talking about the end of the Washington Post Sports Department and people getting fired at the Washington Post. And it's, oh, Jeff Bezos is the devil and he's a billionaire and he's awful and all this shit. So let's get into that. Let's do that after these messages. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes.

Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Field the fun.

Morning will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concern by your gambling or that if someone close to you call 18665-312 or visit Comex Ontario.com. The ScoreBet app here with trusted stats and real-time sports news. Yeah, hey, who should I take in the Boston game?

Well, statistically speaking. Nah, no more statistically speaking. I want hot takes. I want knee-jerk reactions. That's not really what I do. Is that because you don't have any knees? Or... The score bet. Trusted sports content, seamless sports betting.

Download today. 19 plus, Ontario only. If you have questions or concerns about your game or the gambling of someone close to you. Please go to Connixonterio.ca. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only

satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. All right, so the reaction I've seen from people on social media, particularly people who are in the media,

many of whom are in new forms of media. So we're talking Newer, more current, more modern forms of media. Right. So we have got podcasters. We have got bloggers. I say blogger is such a dated term. Nobody's a blogger anymore.

But people who have websites, people who are podcasters, people who stream and are on YouTube, new media. People who, look, if we're being fair and we're being honest, there's a lot of people who are now considered credible media who really are. aren't talented people. They've just found a way into the world of, you know, podcasting and they've built an audience and credit to them. But they are people who are not initiated or really informed on reporting or media or anything like that. They're just people who have opinions. They started a podcast because everybody can. They got some power behind them, and now they have a platform, right? Some are bigger than others, but you have to acknowledge them as legit media, and that's what a lot of these teams do. You know, 15 years ago, there weren't a ton of people.

that ran websites that were getting credentialed to everything. But now you're starting to see that more. And podcasters, they are legitimate viable media, right? And the people who I'm seeing bemoaning the death of the Washington Post Sports Department are people who are in the new forms of media, the podcasters, the websites, the streams, as we've discussed. What does this mean? Why am I saying this?

Why am I bringing this up? Because these people who are bemoaning this and these people who are crying over this, and these people who are saying this is the death of journalism, and these are the people saying, oh my God, there's so many talented people who are without jobs now, and this is terrible. Many of these people are new media that are saying this. And where new media lacks self-awareness,

or maybe they have it, they just choose not to express it or show that they possess self-awareness, is that these people are the reason why the old guard media is dying. These are the people that celebrate the fact there's a new wave of media that is killing old guard media. These are the same people who essentially steal from the newspapers that are doing the real true blue journalism, the real media work and they are stealing and offering things that cost money to their audience for free. And then they are the ones killing the newspapers and killing the old guard media and then claiming that they are sad about it.

What do I mean? Well, let me explain. So the people who are still doing real journalism, not to say that there aren't websites that aren't doing that. You know, I mean, there are plenty that are. But generally speaking, you're going to find people who write for the newspapers who are still out doing real work, whether it be in sports or whether it be investigating things that aren't sports, whether it be covering things that aren't sports, whatever. There are people who are legitimate journalists, people who are trained in this, people who've been doing it long before there was an internet. and long before podcasts and streams took over. People who are credible, people who are long-standing journalists who are trained journalists who went to school to be journalists.

It doesn't mean they're honest and doesn't mean their opinion should matter more than anybody else's, but they are trained in it. They might be biased, but they are trained in it. So you listen to a podcast. You listen to this podcast, for instance. Josh is not going out and mining for information. Josh is not out cultivating stories. Josh gets on his podcast, reads something he sees on USA Today, read something he sees in the Washington Post, read something on The Athletic or ESPN.com, and then Josh comments on that, right?

That's how the ecosystem works. Well, how does that kill these other guys? Well, the reason why newspapers are dying is because people are not reading. them, and it's because people are not paying to read them. That's the most important thing. There's no money coming in. How do you sell advertisements when no one's spending the money to purchase the newspaper? If people are not reading it and the paper is not circulating, nobody who advertises is going to spend money to be featured in the paper or the online version of the paper, and thus it dies, right? I had somebody on Twitter say, well, how do you know that? What are the numbers? I don't have the numbers,

but I know how business works and I know how media business works. You will die if you are not generating revenue. In radio, it's ratings and revenue. TV, it's ratings and revenue. And really, ratings don't matter. It's revenue, revenue, revenue. And if that newspaper were generating revenue, then it would exist. Now, I am of the belief that legitimate news should be a not-for-profit business.

So when you turn on the news and there are commercials that run during the news, and particularly commercials for big farmer or whatever, I am of the belief that that should never be the case. news should always be a not-for-profit. When you turn on the action news in Philadelphia or the local news in Detroit, or you turn on KPRC in Houston or wherever it is you listen, where your local news is, when you turn that on, that should be a not-for-profit. There should never be money-changing hands with advertisers.

Because as I've talked about in the sports world, I've never worked in the non-sports world. But in the sports world, the second you start dealing with advertisers and you start dealing with relationships with teams, that alters the way things are perceived, and it alters the way things are covered, and these organizations become petrified of their overlords. Like when I was in Houston, what did I tell you about the rockets all the time?

I'd have people banging on the door like, hey, the rockets are pissed off, so don't say blank, blank and blank. That shit happens. And that's on a small scale. That's a local sports shit. Imagine that on a global news level. You think that shit doesn't happen all the time? Of course it happens all the time.

So I do not believe that news should be a profit business, because once profit is involved, people's biases get even more involved, and you start really fucking with the integrity of it. That's why I hate that news is a moneymaker. That's why I hate that they sell the sponsorships on local news, national news, whatever. Anyway, so let's say you're listening to a podcast. And here I am ranting on whatever story. Somebody did an investigative story where they unearthed something about Daniel Snyder.

Let's use Daniel Snyder as an example because people keep talking about how the Washington Post helped bring down Daniel Snyder and then Daniel Snyder had to sell the team and the Washington Post is the thing for that, right? So let's look at that, just as an example, a made-up story. Let's make something up about Daniel Snyder that was investigated. Or you kept seeing stories about the calendar shoots with the Washington Redskins cheerleaders and guys were allowed to watch the shoots and it was bad. Okay. Well, the people who got that story in this hypothetical, which is partially true, is the Washington Post. The Washington Post. Washington Post did the legwork.

The Old Guard media got the story. They talked to the sources and they broke the story. The problem is for that story to generate any revenue for the newspaper, people have to buy it to read it. Well, here's the problem. Somebody can just buy, like say you know someone with a subscription. Say you run a podcast. You have a subscription to the Washington Post. In theory, everybody should have to buy that story because that's how you make a

money and that's how the person is rewarded for the job they did in breaking that story. But that's not reality. Reality now is there are people who are in the media world and they subscribe to the athletic and the Washington Post and ESPN.com. And all it takes is one person getting that story. And then they write their little website story on that and quote it and link back to it. And then a podcaster gets on and he prints out the story and he tells you all the salacious details in the story.

Everyone benefits from your work but you. Yes, you're getting paid for the job, but your job becomes less important because you've done all the work. And the people who are benefiting from it are the ones who are offering it up to their audience for free. Something about free milk and a cow, right? A little Georgia satellites. Tell you a little story about free milk and a cow.

Who's going to buy the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, milk or the cow and you get the milk for free? Well, in this case, who's going to buy the Washington Post or the athletic or any of these other sites when there's always going to be someone willing to take the story because they can't create their own stories? What guy on a blog or a website or, and I keep saying blog, I get that that's a dated term, but a website or a podcast, how many of those guys are legitimately breaking stories? How many times do you see a guy who has a stream or a podcast that is a news creator or

someone who breaks stories? How often do you see that? The correct answer is basically never. The only time they do anything that's considered news is when someone from another podcast or another website listens to or reads what somebody says on a podcast and then writes their own story reacting to what you said on that podcast. It's a circle jerk. That's the ecosystem.

How many people are legitimately out creating news? finding news, breaking news. And the answer is very few. Next to nobody is doing that. The people who are doing it, real talk, are the people in the old guard media that we make fun of. The TV people, the newspaper people. So we mock them and we make fun of them and say their outlets are dying. Do you know why their outlets are dying?

Because they don't generate revenue. Why do they not generate revenue? Because small numbers of people purchase their shit. and then distribute it to everybody else in their ecosystem, so they benefit from it. It gives them content. The guy on the podcast, the guy that streams on YouTube, that guy gets content from your work. The problem is, let's say that guy's got 10,000 people that listen to his podcast. That's 10,000 people that do not need to read your story or purchase a subscription to the Washington Post

because somebody else is posting all the important details. And then you go back to this idea that all of these people on social media are bemoaning the death of the newspaper. And I can't believe in this is so sad. And there are so many talented people who are losing their jobs. And what does this say about journalism? What it says is that you who have a podcast and you who have a website and you who have a YouTube channel, you are the ones suckling these people dry. You are sucking them dry and suckling off the teat of the work that they.

have done, and ultimately me and all these other people that sit around and just comment on this shit, we're succubus. We're suckling off the work of legitimate journalists, whether we agree with them or not. In theory, they are legitimate journalists. And we are suckling off the teat of these people. But unlike those people, I'm not going to sit here and cry for the Washington Post people and act like I'm, like, I am so sorry this is happening. You know what those people are?

Those people are like OJ. OJ who for years and years was like, I'm looking for the real killer. When OJ was probably, allegedly, the real killer. That's who these people are. They are OJ. They are Orenthal. They are people like, we've got to find the killer.

Well, the person who murdered the newspapers and the people who are murdering real journalism are 95 to 99% of these public. podcasters and streamers and website people that basically just link you back to other people shit. You know the people who are killing journalism? The pro football talks of the world who are basically a drudge report for football. You just don't really break anything. You have very little to offer.

And most of your shit is just other people's reporting that people are going to your website to click on. You benefit from it while those people don't. So please spare me the sob story about the death of the newspaper. and spare me the sob story about how you're so emotional and sad and how you grew up reading this newspaper and it is dead. It is dying because we are all collectively killing it. We are all responsible for the death of these things, just like we're responsible for the death of anything. Now, I think part of the problem that you're running into with all media is that people are hip to the idea now that media is pretty dishonest, right? like that people have biases and whether it's true or not people like Trump and other people have

been able to convince you that everyone has an issue and news is vague and it's fake news and all that shit. So we already have a distrust for the media. But as you start losing more of these old guard people who have some level of standard in the way they cover things and you get younger people who are coming into this media world as part of this younger generation of people who don't really have standards, they've grown up in the Twitter universe, they've grown up in the 24-hour news universe. They've grown up in the, we've got to get all the clicks universe.

They're not doing things the way those people did, but they are suckling off the teat of those people. So please spare me. I don't need to hear your bullshit about how sad you are over the death of the Washington Post, Mr. I have a podcast or I have a website or I have a YouTube channel. Because you don't have the self-awareness to look in the mirror and realize that every time you take one of their stories

and use that for your content. Yeah, you're going to credit them and say, hey, this was in the Washington Post. Bill Smitherson wrote this story. Every time you do that, and you're using somebody else's work that they put their blood, sweat, and tears into, that the only way they can continue to do that is if somebody buys that,

and you buy it and distribute it to 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 other people, or if you're Pat McAfee, millions of people, if you're Dan Patrick, millions of people, when you distribute other people's work and you use it for content, which again isn't bad, which isn't illegal, which isn't a crime. But when you do that, you're basically getting the benefit of all the work that that person did, and they're getting very little of it. And that's why newspapers die.

And that's why respected journalism is dead because of that. More to come.